Harmoney hit by 'sophisticated' fraudsters

(File)
(File)

Online lender Harmoney has had to call in the police after being targeted by "sophisticated" fraudsters.

The problem emerged after some lenders posted comments to online forum Sharetrader in the last few days saying loans had been written off and that Harmoney was blaming fraud.

One user claimed nine of their loans had been written off and in a post dated April 11, a Harmoney representative named Dan replied: "All full ID takeovers from stolen IDs (which means all personal details match) generally acquired through breaking and entering. It appears to be a sophisticated fraud ring and this matter is now with police who were interviewing the suspects on Friday."

In written statements to Newshub this afternoon, Harmoney confirmed there have been 26 cases of fraud since the firm opened for business in 2013 and the nine cases were part of that total.

These 26 cases represented 0.016 per cent of the 165,000 loan applications received . All had led to arrests and prosecutions, and all cases completed to date had resulted in convictions.

Harmoney would not give any further details.

"We believe that Harmoney has one of the most sophisticated fraud protection systems available in the country," said Joint CEO and founder Neil Roberts. " We continue to monitor activity very closely."

Harmoney is a peer-to-peer lending service for personal loans, which operates by connecting investors with borrowers.

Newshub.